“It also turns out that taking rest within the learning episode is very important. The rates of learning were significantly faster when they injected these short periods of rest.” - Dr. Andrew Huberman

In a recent episode of Huberman Lab, neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman describes a study where participants were asked to practice a skill (ex: playing a scale on the piano), and rest for periods of 10 seconds undistracted within the practice period. Under the observation of fMRI, it turns out that during these periods of 10 seconds rest, our brain continues to rehearse the skill, but at 20x THE SPEED!

For example, if you play a scale 5x in ten seconds, and then rest for 10 seconds, your brain will rehearse the scale 100x in those 10 seconds of rest.

Right now, I’m learning French and will inject these 10 second rest periods into my self-practice. I don’t have an fMRI machine, but nonetheless, I’m interested to see how the progress may feel different with short rest.

Check out the full episode with Dr. Huberman below:

Source: Huberman Lab

Study: Cell Reports